Ryan C. Fogle, the US government employee whom the Russian security service claims is a CIA officer, is merely the latest spy-posing-as-diplomat to be thrown out of the country. And plenty of his Russian colleagues have gotten the boot for spying in the West. Over the past decade, dozens of agents, intelligence officers, and embassy employees on all sides have been outed, arrested, and deported or imprisoned for espionage.
2001: After the arrest of FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen, the US declares six Russian diplomats persona non grata. Later, another 46 diplomats are ordered to leave the country, marking the largest spy deportation since President Ronald Reagan ordered out 55 Soviet agents in 1986.
2001: Following Hanssen’s arrest, Russia expels 50 US diplomats. The government releases film showing US military attaches buying information from Russian contacts.
2001: Russia arrests and later releases a US Fulbright scholar on drug charges and alleges that he was a spy in training.
2006: A Navy enlisted man, Ariel Weinmann, gave tomahawk missile information to the Russians in Vienna. He was later caught and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
2006: Canada arrests and deports an alleged Russian spy, who had been living as a Canadian with fake documents for a decade.
2007: The UK expels four Russian diplomats.
2010: Ten russian agents, dubbed the “illegals,” are arrested in the US, accused of trying to gather information on businesses and American policy.
2010: The UK and Russia exchange tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.
2012: Alexander Fishenko is arrested for selling hi-tech electronics to Russia.
2012: Retired Russian Col. Vladimir Lazar is convicted of spying and selling 7,000 maps to the Pentagon.
2012: Russia orders the US to end USAID operations in the country for meddling in internal affairs.
And these aren’t all the most famous cases. Spying is a centuries old business. Fogel’s arrest is just business as usual.
Nicholas Hunt contributed reporting.
